Comment: In the 1960s, an American psychologist Martin Seligman conducted experiments with dogs based on Pavlov’s design. I am talking only about a part of the experiment, because it is very complicated.
The purpose of the experiment was to form a fear reflex to the sound of a signal. While Pavlov’s animals received meat after a signal, Seligman’s animals received an electric shock. To prevent the dogs from escaping prematurely, fences were built.
Seligman was confident that when the animals were moved to an enclosure with a low partition, they would run away as soon as they heard the signal. However, in the new cage the dogs sat on the floor and whined. Not a single dog jumped over the easiest obstacle—nor did they even try. When a dog that was not involved in the experiment was put under the same conditions, it easily escaped.
It turns out that the same thing happens to people. A person who is driven into helplessness cannot even jump over a low fence. He does not believe that there is a way out, he just lies on the floor and whines.
Question: What is it about us when a person himself renounces his freedom? You are no longer tied. Quit your job! Leave the country! Get away from this constant failure! You are talented and smart! But no way, he stays in the same place.
Answer: External pressure fetters a person and deprives him of all opportunities for development, awareness, and victory.
Comment: That is, pressure and fear are serious…
My Response: They are a serious weapon in the hands of society or a person.
Question: And if you master this fear and pressure, can you put people down?
Answer: Yes, that is what they tried to do.
Question: But if we talk about our life, does a person still agree with his life even though this is a cage and he suffers in it?
Answer: He has nothing in return. A person does not see that there is something other than this, and therefore, he agrees and tries to find at least some small pleasures, fulfillment, and satisfaction within this framework. This is our life.
Question: How can we see at least a small break and somehow slip through this hole and jump out of it?
Answer: We need to get education that if we want to become the best, then for this we must gain an understanding of freedom from ourselves, from our egoism. And then we can achieve equality among everyone.
Question: What role does egoism play here? For this person who falls down from the blow and does not move, what role does his egoism play? Basically, everything is suppressed in him.
Answer: It is in this very state when he lies under blows that he is beginning to develop the ability to rise above himself. And he begins to fantasize, one might say, how this can be done.
Question: This is how he can break free?
Answer: Yes, in this way he gradually grows.
Question: So this power of suppression and the power of fear is even positive in some sense?
Answer: Yes, it is positive for a person. It develops him.
And what does the Creator use when he wants to lead us to the better, to goodness, to rise above ourselves? It is only by the opposite force, the force of fear, the force of fear of suffering, and so on.
Question: So, now you seem to reassign this to the Creator, that all these are His actions? There are no leaders, there is nobody—just the actions of the Creator?
Answer: Of course, and they are directional.
Question: What kind of creatures are we?
Answer: We are small, weak egoists.
Question: And what are we supposed to grow into?
Answer: We are supposed to understand our little egoism, which represents our entire nature, and wish to rise above it, above this egoism. And for this we need mutual assistance and understanding that there is a different opportunity to exist, and we only need to rise out of ourselves.
Question: Meaning that then we jump over this “fence” and leave?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Is this “fence” really low?
Answer: Yes, it is, just slightly above the ground.
Question: Does this low “fence” seem like an impenetrable wall to us?
Answer: This is a psychological obstacle.
Question: Precisely psychological?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Then there is a question about freewill. In what case can we take this step toward freedom? What should happen to us?
Answer: We can direct ourselves to the freedom of will if we decide that we have no other choice and do not try to run away somewhere, hide, embellish, or sweeten our existence in egoism, in exile from the good, from kindness, from everything.
If we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps in this way and act, we will see that it is possible.
Question: What is a free person, what does it mean to be free?
Answer: A free person is one who has no restrictions. And this is, first of all, internal freedom.
Comment: “No restrictions” can be understood in different ways.
My Response: “There are no restrictions” means that a person can live with everyone—everyone will feel good with him, and he will feel good with everyone. That is, this person is not guided by his egoism.
[330612]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/13/24
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Freedom Is Being Able To Choose Your Master
Freedom Comes From Being Able To Bestow
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